Neutrino Hunters
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The Neutrino Hunters The Chase for the Ghost Particle and the Secrets of the Universe Ray Jayawardhana hn hk io il sy SY A Oneworld Book For my mother, Sirima, with love and gratitude hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY First published in Great Britain and the Commonwealth by Oneworld Publications 2014 hn hk io il sy SY First published in the United States by Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux hn hk io il sy SY 18 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011 USA Copyright © 2013 Ray Jayawardhana The moral right of Ray Jayawardhana to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record of this title is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78074-326-4 eISBN 978-1-78074-327-1 Cover design by www.shepherdstudio.co.uk Interior design by Jonathan D. Lippincott Printed and bound in Great Britain by Page Bros Ltd Oneworld Publications 10 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3SR England 042-54883_ch00_2P.indd 5 8/5/13 3:56 PM hn hk io il sy SY The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that her- hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY alds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” but “That’s funny . .” hn hk io il sy SY —Isaac Asimov hn hk io il sy SY 042-54883_ch00_2P.indd 7 8/5/13 3:56 PM CONTENTS 1. The Hunt Heats Up 3 2. A Terrible Thing 27 3. Ghost Chasing 53 4. Sun Underground 75 5. Cosmic Chameleons 97 6. Exploding Stars 117 7. Vanishing Acts 143 8. Seeds of a Revolution 167 Time Line 193 Glossary 197 Notes 211 Ac know ledg ments 231 Index 233 042-54883_ch00_6P.indd ix 10/10/13 7:13 AM NEUTRINO HUNTERS 042-54883_ch01_6P.indd 1 10/10/13 7:14 AM ONE THETHE HUNTHUNT HEATS UPUP ThereThere he he stood, stood, wearing wearing aa red parka, NorwegianNorwegian Prime Prime Minis- Minis- terter Jens Jens Stoltenberg, Stoltenberg, onon blindinglyblindingly whitewhite snowsnow against against a aclear clear blueblue sky, sky, 9,000 9,000 feet feet above above sea level, withwith the the temperature temperature hover- hover- inging at at minus minus 20 20 degrees degrees Fahrenheit.Fahrenheit. “We“We are are here here today today to to cel- cel- ebrateebrate one one of of the the most most outstandingoutstanding achievementsachievements of of mankind,” mankind,” hehe bellowed bellowed out, out, as as the the soundssounds of flflags ags fl appingflapping in thein thewind wind and and snowsnow crushing crushing under under aa walker’swalker’s boots threatenedthreatened to to muffl muffle e his his voice.voice. His His brief brief remarks remarks over,over, with aa couplecouple of of hundred hundred workers, workers, guests,guests, and and tourists tourists watching, watching, Stoltenberg unveiled unveiled a abust bust carved carved inin ice, ice, placed placed atop atop a a waist-waist- high column: “That’s “That’s the the man!” man!” TheThe ice ice sculpture sculpture borebore the likeness ofof Stoltenberg’s Stoltenberg’s legend- legend- aryary countryman countryman RoaldRoald Amundsen.Amundsen. TheThe low-low- key key ceremony ceremony at at thethe bottom bottom of of the the worldworld markedmarked thethe centenarycentenary of of Amundsen Amundsen andand four four mates mates arrivingarriving at the South PolePole onon December December 14, 14, 1911,1911, delivering delivering historichistoric gloryglory to thethe youngyoung nation nation of of Norway, Norway, whichwhich had had become become inin de de pen pen dent from SwedenSweden a a mere mere six six years years earlier.earlier. Fueled Fueled byby relentlessrelentless determination and and aided aided by by dog- dog- sleds,sleds, Amundsen’s Amundsen’s teamteam famouslyfamously beatbeat thethe ill- ill-fated fated expedition expedition ledled by by the the British British navalnaval officeroffi cer Robert Robert Falcon Falcon Scott Scott by bynearly nearly fivefi ve weeks, scoring whatwhat waswas undoubtedly undoubtedly a remarkablea remarkable feat feat of of terrestrialterrestrial exploration. exploration. 042-54883_ch01_6P.indd 3 10/10/13 7:14 AM 4 NEUTRINO HUNTERS Today the frozen wasteland where the fi erce competition between Amundsen and Scott played out, with the pride of na- tions and the lives of heroes at stake, is a hotbed of activity for a different breed of explorers with more ethereal goals. Intrepid bands of scientists racing to unravel mysteries of life, our planet, and the universe are the ones laying claim to Antarctica now. In fact, the continent crawls with well over a thousand scien- tists and support personnel during the summer months. Geo- logists dig up ice cores and track the movements of glaciers for clues about climate change. Atmospheric scientists fl y helium- fi lled balloons to mea sure stratospheric ozone, to complement the observations of satellites staring down from space. Paleon- tologists forage for fossils of creatures that were wiped out by the deadliest of known extinctions 250 million years ago. Biolo- gists scour the dry valleys of Antarctica in search of organisms that thrive in extreme habitats. In early 2012, after many years of drilling, Rus sian researchers pierced through two miles of ice to reach Lake Vostok, a pristine subglacial reservoir shielded from sunlight and the wind for some 20 million years; they had hopes of encountering hitherto unknown life-forms. Two years earlier, I got to experience what it was like to live and work on the ice when I went to Antarctica as a member of a meteorite- collecting expedition. We reached McMurdo Sta- tion, the American research center on the coast located near Scott’s 1902 landing site, by military transport plane from New Zealand. After a week of preparations, packing, and training, we then fl ew to a seasonal base camp, where, two by two, we boarded a Twin Otter plane on skis for the fi nal leg of our jour- ney. The small aircraft, operated by Canadian bush pilots, dropped us off on a remote ice fi eld just fi ve degrees from the Pole. That’s where eight of us—two women and six men— camped out in yellow, pyramid- shaped “Scott tents” for the next 042-54883_ch01_6P.indd 4 10/10/13 7:14 AM THE HUNT HEATS UP 5 fi ve bone- chilling weeks, cut off from the rest of the world ex- cept for a satellite telephone and the occasional drop- off of mail and supplies. This being the Antarctic summer, the Sun was always up, tracing a counterclockwise circle in the sky every twenty-four hours. There was no sign of life— human, animal, or plant— to be seen anywhere. Day after day, if the winds were bearable, we went out on snowmobiles or on foot to search the nearby vast ice fi eld and the moraines next to the hills for rocks that had fallen from space. Wrapped in big red parkas as well as thermal layers, bunny boots, neck warmers, gloves, goggles, balaclavas, and hats, we took care to avoid frostbite and crevasses during our excursions. It was easy to slip and fall on the rock- hard ice and hurt your- self badly. I slid off the Ski- Doo once, but thankfully the thick parka cushioned my fall. Others on the team also had minor mishaps, but we survived the cold, the tedium, and the isola- tion without any serious problems. In fact, we enjoyed the stark beauty of the landscape— the views from the tops of rocky peaks were especially magnifi cent— and found ways to entertain our- selves. By the expedition’s end, our team had collected a total of 900 meteorites, which are now available to researchers from around the world for a variety of studies. Our own reward was the remarkable experience itself— and the delightful Adélie and emperor penguins we encountered near McMurdo at the end of the season. My one regret is that I didn’t get to visit the South Pole, despite being so close to it. The focus of activity at the Pole itself is decidedly extrater- restrial. These scientists seem to have taken to heart Marcel Proust’s adage that “the only true voyage of discovery . would not be to travel to new lands, but to possess other eyes.” The most striking part of their apparatus near the Pole is a 10- meter (33- foot) radio dish turned skyward, to map the feeble afterglow 042-54883_ch01_6P.indd 5 10/10/13 7:14 AM 6 NEUTRINO HUNTERS of the big bang. One of my Toronto colleagues, Keith Vander- linde, spent most of the year 2008 taking care of this telescope; he survived the polar “night” that lasted for six months, tem- peratures that dipped to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and the overwhelming sense of isolation, not to mention the short showers and the severe boredom. But the most ambitious, and unconventional, of the scientifi c instruments near the South Pole is buried permanently deep under the ice, and it looks down, not up. Its construction— or burial, to be more accurate— was completed just a year before the Amundsen centennial cele- bration. All that the visiting dignitaries could see aboveground was a rectangular offi ce trailer on stilts, fi lled with cables and computers. There was little sign of what lay beneath but for the small fl ags that scientists had planted helpfully on the ice to mark its mammoth footprint. IceCube is an observatory like no other. The glacial ice it- self, transparent and cleared of air bubbles by extreme pressure at depths greater than a mile, serves the same purpose as the smooth primary mirror of a conventional astronomical telescope.